Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II
An incredible true story of murder, romance, and a fateful search for utopia in the Gal?pagos--from the New York Times bestselling author of The Ghosts of Eden Park
"Abbott Kahler's wickedly gothic tale confronts an essential truth about those who ditch civilization: Try as we might, humans cannot elude the tyranny of our own nature."--Hampton Sides, author of The Wide Wide Sea
"With taut prose and sublime storytelling, Kahler crafts an atmospheric page-turner, ominous and thought-provoking."--Kate Moore, author of The Radium Girls and The Woman They Could Not Silence At the height of the Great Depression, Los Angeles oil mogul George Allan Hancock and his crew of Smithsonian scientists came upon a gruesome scene: two bodies, mummified by the searing heat, on the shore of a remote Gal?pagos island. For the past four years Hancock and other American elites had traveled the South Seas to collect specimens for scientific research. On one trip to the Gal?pagos, Hancock was surprised to discover an equally exotic group of humans: European exiles who had fled political and economic unrest, hoping to create a utopian paradise. One was so devoted to a life of isolation that he'd had his teeth extracted and replaced with a set of steel dentures. As Hancock and his fellow American explorers would witness, paradise had turned into chaos. The three sets of exiles--a Berlin doctor and his lover, a traumatized World War I veteran and his young family, and an Austrian baroness with two adoring paramours--were riven by conflict. Petty slights led to angry confrontations. The baroness, wielding a riding crop and pearl-handled revolver, staged physical fights between her two lovers and unabashedly seduced American tourists. The conclusion was deadly: with two exiles missing and two others dead, the survivors hurled accusations of murder. Using never-before-published archives, Abbott Kahler weaves a chilling, stranger-than-fiction tale worthy of Agatha Christie. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the march to World War II, with a mystery as alluring and curious as the Gal?pagos itself, Eden Undone explores the universal and timeless desire to seek utopia--and lays bare the human fallibility that, inevitably, renders such a quest doomed.
Author: Abbott Kahler
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Published: 09/24/2024
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.27lbs
Size: 9.48h x 6.40w x 1.19d
ISBN: 9780451498656
Review Citation(s):
Booklist 08/01/2024 pg. 6
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2024
About the Author
Abbott Kahler, formerly writing as Karen Abbott, is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City; American Rose; Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy; and The Ghosts of Eden Park. She is also the host of Remus: The Mad Bootleg King, a podcast about legendary Jazz Age bootlegger George Remus. A native of Philadelphia, she lives in New York City and in Greenport, New York.
"Abbott Kahler's wickedly gothic tale confronts an essential truth about those who ditch civilization: Try as we might, humans cannot elude the tyranny of our own nature."--Hampton Sides, author of The Wide Wide Sea
"With taut prose and sublime storytelling, Kahler crafts an atmospheric page-turner, ominous and thought-provoking."--Kate Moore, author of The Radium Girls and The Woman They Could Not Silence At the height of the Great Depression, Los Angeles oil mogul George Allan Hancock and his crew of Smithsonian scientists came upon a gruesome scene: two bodies, mummified by the searing heat, on the shore of a remote Gal?pagos island. For the past four years Hancock and other American elites had traveled the South Seas to collect specimens for scientific research. On one trip to the Gal?pagos, Hancock was surprised to discover an equally exotic group of humans: European exiles who had fled political and economic unrest, hoping to create a utopian paradise. One was so devoted to a life of isolation that he'd had his teeth extracted and replaced with a set of steel dentures. As Hancock and his fellow American explorers would witness, paradise had turned into chaos. The three sets of exiles--a Berlin doctor and his lover, a traumatized World War I veteran and his young family, and an Austrian baroness with two adoring paramours--were riven by conflict. Petty slights led to angry confrontations. The baroness, wielding a riding crop and pearl-handled revolver, staged physical fights between her two lovers and unabashedly seduced American tourists. The conclusion was deadly: with two exiles missing and two others dead, the survivors hurled accusations of murder. Using never-before-published archives, Abbott Kahler weaves a chilling, stranger-than-fiction tale worthy of Agatha Christie. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the march to World War II, with a mystery as alluring and curious as the Gal?pagos itself, Eden Undone explores the universal and timeless desire to seek utopia--and lays bare the human fallibility that, inevitably, renders such a quest doomed.
Author: Abbott Kahler
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Published: 09/24/2024
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.27lbs
Size: 9.48h x 6.40w x 1.19d
ISBN: 9780451498656
Review Citation(s):
Booklist 08/01/2024 pg. 6
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2024
About the Author
Abbott Kahler, formerly writing as Karen Abbott, is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City; American Rose; Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy; and The Ghosts of Eden Park. She is also the host of Remus: The Mad Bootleg King, a podcast about legendary Jazz Age bootlegger George Remus. A native of Philadelphia, she lives in New York City and in Greenport, New York.
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